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'It's refreshing to find a book that cuts through the tired old debates that have surrounded documentary film and television. It heralds a welcome new approach.'

Sight and Sound

'Documentary practice changes so fast that books on the subject are often out of date before they are published. Bruzzi's achievement is to have understood the genre as an activity based on performance rather than observation. This is a fresh perspective which illuminates the fundamental shifts that will continue to take place in the genre as it enters its second century.'

John Ellis, Professor of Media Arts, Royal Holloway, University of London

New Documentary provides a contemporary look at documentary and fresh and challenging ways of theorising the non-fiction film. As engaging as the original, this second edition features thorough updates to the existing chapters, as well as a brand new chapter on contemporary cinema release documentaries.

This new edition includes:

Contemporary films such as Capturing the Friedmans, Être et avoir, Farenheit 9/11, The Fog of War and Touching the Void as well as more canonical texts such as Hoop Dreams and Shoah

A comprehensively revised discussion of modern observational documentary, including docusoaps, reality television and formatted documentaries

The work of documentary filmmakers such as Nicholas Barker, Errol Morris, Nick Broomfield, Molly Dineen and Michael Moore and the work of Avant-Garde filmmakers such as Chris Marker and Patrick Keiller

Gender identity, queer theory, performance, race and spectatorship.

Bruzzi shows how theories of documentary filmmaking can be applied to contemporary texts and genres, and discusses the relationship between recent, innovative examples of the genre and the more established canon of documentary.

Part 1: Ground rules 1. The event: archive and newsreel 2. Narration: the film and its voice Part 2: The legacy of direct cinema 3. Documentary journeys 4. New observational documentary: from 'docusoaps' to reality television Part 3: Performance 5. The president and the image 6. The performative documentary Part 4: New directions 7. Contemporary documentaries: performance and success